fishing the big water

Hi Folks, Guided the hard water this week and moved around a bit.  Went to Lake Champlain on Wednesday and fished an inland lake on Thursday.  Fished the narrows of lake Champlain and found 4" to 7" of black ice.  Easy walking as the snow has been compacted.  You really need to pay attention on Champlain due to its size, wind, and current the ice conditions can change in short distance.  We brought all of the safety gear with us including a ladder, rope, and safety lanyards.  Caught a lot of smelt and fallfish, but nor salmon or lakers.  We set-up in 35' of water and had tip-ups in 10' to 100' of water.  Put a couple on the bottom looking for a ling cod.  Pretty awesome being on the big lake looking at the mountains in New York.  Same deal on Thursday we caught smelt and some yellow perch, but no brown trout.  There was 20" of ice where we fished Thursday and all of the slush and snow had firmed up so walking was easy.  Beautiful weather with big sun and warm air temperatures.  Will be guiding tomorrow and looks like winter weather has returned.  Remember to obey the bait laws and keep VHS at home.  Have Fun, Willy